On the Coastal Pacific Train

Today we drove back to Picton and dropped off the hire car before boarding the KiwiRail Coastal Pacific train to Christchurch.
Lovely scenery on the way passing vineyards, farmland with cattle, sheep and some horses and at times very close to the Pacific Ocean and on the other side views of the distant mountains.
Standing in the open sided viewing carriage was an exilerating experience , very windswept, smelling of diesel fumes and extremely noisy at times especially going through tunnels but the views more than made up for all that.
We arrived in Christchurch in the early evening and had a walk in the City Centre taking time to look at the very sad sight of the ruined Cathedral destroyed in the earthquake almost 5 years ago.